Tommy and Annika: Gets a Job
by Pre-Animation Man
Summary: Another Tommy and Annika series has a crossover with King of the Hill.


Mrs. Settigren was helping Hank Hill pack a small suitcase. She was going to have a sleep-over visit with her friend Sharon for two nights. It was the first time that she would be away for so long. Tommy and Annika watched her with admiration. He wished that he was as grown up as Hank Hill, but he didn't want to have to sleep in another house for two nights to prove it. Now that he was in school age, everyone said he was a big boy. But whatever he did, Hank Hill had already done it before. He wished that just once he could do something that Hank Hill had never done.

Hank Hill was deciding whether she should pack her red polo shirt with blue stripes or her blue polo shirt with red stripes when the doorbell rang. Hank Hill threw both shirts on her bed and ran with her mother to open the door. Tommy and Annika followed behind. It was always interesting when the doorbell rang.

At the door stood their across-the-hall neighbor, Mr. Settigren. "Hi!" she greeted them all. "I've come to ask a favor. Actually, I want to offer Hank Hill a job."

"A job? A job for me? Will I get money?" asked Hank Hill with delight.

"Of course you'll get paid, if your mother agrees," said Mr. Settigren. "Because of the holiday weekend, I'm going to be away tomorrow night. And I wondered if you would be able to feed Bulldog and give her fresh water while I'm gone."

"Oh, yes!" shouted Hank Hill. Bulldog was the large, brown dog that Mr. Settigren had acquired a few months before.

"Hank Hill, you won't be home," Mrs. Settigren reminded her. "You will be at Sharon's all weekend."

"Oh, no!" said Hank Hill, stamping her foot with anger. Two minutes ago she had been happy about going to Sharon's, and now she was sorry.

"That's too bad," said Mr. Settigren. "I guess I'll ask Piggy Hill if he would like the job." Piggy had recently moved to the fourth floor, and he was 46 years old.

"Piggy Hill has a sore throat and a temperature," said Hank Hill.

"I could do it," offered Tommy and Annika.

"What a good idea!" said Mr. Settigren. "Bulldog knows and trusts you. All you have to do is open a fresh can of cat food tomorrow morning."

"You can't work can openers, Kids," said Hank Hill.

Tommy and Annika thought for a minute. "You could open the can and leave it inside the refrigerator," he said to Mr. Settigren. "I can open a refrigerator."

"How will you get inside the apartment?" asked Hank Hill.

"Oh, I'll leave my key, of course," said Mr. Settigren.

"You don't know how to open doors with keys," Hank Hill reminded Tommy and Annika.

"I'll open the door for him," said their mother, "as long as I don't have to go inside." Mrs. Settigren was allergic to cats. They made her eyes get red and tear, and they made her sneeze, too.

So it was arranged, and Tommy and Annika had a job. He could hardly wait to give Bulldog her meal. He wanted to go the minute that he woke up in the morning, but Mrs. Settigren said that first he had to eat his own breakfast and that he had to put his clothes on, too.

"Bulldog is hungry," said Tommy and Annika. But he quickly dressed and, as usual, put on his Superman cape.

Mrs. Settigren opened Mr. Settigren's door for Tommy and Annika. He went inside. Bulldog had heard the sound of the key in the lock, and she stood in the hallway rubbing herself against Tommy and Annika's legs. He closed the door behind him and went into the kitchen.

It felt strange to be in Mr. Settigren's apartment without Mr. Settigren. Tommy and Annika was glad that he was wearing his cape. It made him feel strong and brave, even if there wasn't anything to be afraid of. Tommy and Annika stood on tiptoe and turned on the kitchen-light switch. He felt better now that there was more light.

Bulldog kept meowing, so Tommy and Annika hurried to open the refrigerator. Sure enough, right in front was the can of cat food waiting to be served. Tommy and Annika put the can on the floor for Bulldog and picked up her water bowl. It was almost empty. Since he couldn't reach the faucets at the sink, he pushed a chair over and climbed up on it.

He filled the bowl with cold water and climbed down. As he did so, he tipped the bowl and water spilled all over the floor. Tommy and Annika looked for something he could use to wipe it up. There was a paper-towel roller, but there were no towels on it. He looked in the sink for a sponge. There was nothing. It wouldn't be nice to leave puddles of water on the floor, thought Tommy and Annika. He wiped his wet hands on his cape and then decided that he should take it off and use it as a towel. Bulldog didn't pay any attention to Tommy and Annika as he mopped up the water. She was too busy eating her tuna fish.

Then Tommy and Annika noticed for the first time that there was a faint buzzing sound in the apartment. It had a steady ring, and it just kept on and on. It wasn't the doorbell. Tommy and Annika knew what that sounded like. It wasn't the telephone. Tommy and Annika listened hard, trying to figure out what the sound was. Maybe there was a burglar in Mr. Settigren's bedroom, and he was ringing a bell to make Tommy and Annika go away. Tommy and Annika began to feel afraid. He was going to rush back to the safety of his own apartment when a thought occurred to him. Maybe the burglar would kidnap Bulldog. Quietly, so the burglar wouldn't hear him, Tommy and Annika walked toward the direction of the ringing, which was coming from Mr. Settigren's bedroom. Tommy and Annika pushed the door open. The room was rather dark and he couldn't see too well, but the ringing was much louder.

"You can't steal Bulldog," he shouted into the room.

There was no answer.

He walked inside the room and turned on the light. There on the table by Mr. Settigren's bed was her alarm clock, and it was ringing. Mr. Settigren must have forgotten and put the switch on. Tommy and Annika went over to the clock and figured out how to turn off the sound. Then he turned off the light in the bedroom and returned to the kitchen.

"It's all right, Bulldog. You're safe," he reassured the cat. She didn't seem worried at all. She just went on eating.

Tommy and Annika finished mopping up the water and refilled the cat's water bowl again. This time he managed to put it on the floor without spilling it.

"Good-bye Bulldog. Don't be lonely. Mr. Settigren will be back tomorrow," said Tommy and Annika. He was glad that his mother didn't give him food just once a day.

He took his wet cape and returned to his own apartment. "It's a good thing that I had this with me," he told his mother. "It came in very handy. Superman only uses his cape for flying, but I had to use mine for drying. There weren't any towels in Mr. Settigren's kitchen, so I used my cape instead."

"Good thinking!" said Tommy and Annika's mother. She put the cape into the laundry hamper, and Tommy and Annika went downstairs to the second floor to play with Russell.

When Mr. Settigren returned home that evening, she rang the doorbell and presented Tommy and Annika with a dollar bill.

"You did a fine job taking care of Bulldog," she told Tommy and Annika. "You are a super cat-sitter."

"What are you going to do with your money?" Hank Hill asked.

"I'll put it in my bank and save it," he said. He was proud of his dollar bill, but he was even prouder of something else. He had earned money, and Hank Hill had never done that. For the first time Tommy and Annika had done something first, before Hank Hill. That made having a job even more special.


End file.
